Rate My Professor Woosung Kim

Woosung Kim serves as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow in the Department of Surgery and Critical Care at the University of Otago's Wellington campus, part of the Faculty of Medicine within the Division of Health Sciences. Holding a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) from the University of Otago in 2005 and Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Orthopaedics (FRACS Orth) in 2018, Kim is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon specializing in hip and knee surgery. He practices publicly at Wellington Hospital and privately at Wellington Orthopaedic and Sports Surgeons, performing procedures such as hip replacements, hip arthroscopy and preservation surgery, and knee replacements.

A graduate of Otago Medical School, Kim completed the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association training programme before undertaking advanced post-fellowship training overseas. This included a Hip Arthroplasty Fellowship at Seoul National University Hospital and fellowships with the Melbourne Orthopaedic Group in anterior hip replacement, hip preservation, and sports and joint surgery. Committed to education, he holds an undergraduate teaching placement at the University of Otago Medical School in Wellington. Kim is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and a member of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association and the New Zealand Hip Society. He has contributed to organisational efforts, serving as a local coordinator for New Zealand Orthopaedic Association events in Wellington.

In addition to his clinical and teaching roles, Kim has engaged in clinical research, co-authoring several peer-reviewed publications. Notable among these is the "Surgical Plating vs Closed Reduction for Fractures in the Distal Radius in the Elderly: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial (CROSSFIRE)," published in JAMA Surgery in 2021, which evaluated surgical versus non-surgical management for distal radius fractures. He also contributed to "A combined randomised and observational study of surgery for fractures in the distal radius in the elderly: an evaluation of the feasibility of a main trial (CROSSFIRE)," in BMJ Open in 2017, and "A 10-Year Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial" assessing polyethylene wear and component migration after total hip arthroplasty, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 2017. More recently, in 2025, he co-authored a randomized prospective double-blind trial comparing highly cross-linked and conventional polyethylene liners in total hip arthroplasty, published in The Bone & Joint Journal. These contributions highlight his impact on evidence-based orthopaedic practices.